Assorted Musings.

Ah, two in the morning. The hour where blogging seems to make the most sense to me. The prime hour where my creativity isn't stemmed by my often restrictive sense of reasoning, but my imagination still has one leg caught in the window - and without the presence of Ryan Shawcross/Martin Taylor, escape seems impossible.

Yesterday my mum underwent an operation to remove some cancerous cells from a part of her body which  I was not told. It's a detail I wasn't informed about, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a detail where I'm not sure would have had any relevance to me - yet oddly I feel guilty for not attempting to see if it would have a weight. Anyway, the most important details revealed to me were the fact that the fine doctors at the Angliss Hospital caught the cells early before they could spread and the operation was a complete success. Huzzahs all round.

Unbeknownst to me was the location of the hospital, and perhaps only half of you Melbournites reading this blog will only know where the Angliss Hospital is, all tucked away neatly in Ferntree Gully. With about two and a half hours of waiting time before the operation and two hours after the operation, I was afforded an opportunity to get a lay of the land, and it was an opportunity I didn't think twice before taking. Reminiscent of the endeavours of Wilson's Promontory in year nine, the casual hour long hike over some of the deceivingly large mountains allowed me some breathing space, allowed me a visual demonstration of the grandeur of mother nature. The environmentalists are wrong, there's simply no way humans can ever lay waste and destruction to such a thing of awe, of such incomprehensible timelessness. It only seemed more apparent as I took in my environment that humans will come and go; but mother nature will forever remain a constant, will forever adapt to the new parasites living on its surface. The view was breathtaking beyond words.

Excitement is building. Little children will be looking at their calendars, counting down the days, giddy with excitement until it’s that night and they can barely sleep. Tossing and turning all night long, their little pyjamas all crumpled up and no matter how much they close their eyes and squeeze them shut they just can’t.

Eventually sleep will take them and the next morning they’ll rush down the stairs and log onto NewsNow to see if Arsenal have signed anyone. Yes, it’s the opening of the transfer window. - Arseblogger. 

 Ah yes, the all but infuriating transfer windows for Arsenal fans. Though given my current circumstances, it's probably not the Transfer Window that's causing my counting down of the days until that night and I can barely sleep. Rather, it's the mere fact that tomorrow marks the day year 12 scores are released and I may be subjected to a life of child slave labor back in the motherland for not being able to reap the fruits of my study exhaustive labor (and my blogging, it's mostly the blogging). I have no regrets.

But the transfer window. Perhaps more dire than the last season, Le Prof will be having to do a lot of spending this window. With Santos injured during a midweek against Olympiakos, Arsenal are without all four of their full backs. It is then most likely the case that Vermalen will fill in for Santos on the left and we will be treated to the defensive stylings of Mertescielny - opening up a position for Djourou to fill in at right back. More daunting than this is the prospects of having a clumsy frenchman by the name of Squillaci sitting on our bench, ready to sabotage (with his partners in crime Djourou and Almunia) any chances we have of securing a Champions league place.

In spite of such a macabre prospect, it is very unlikely that Arsenal will see a new full back come the end of January. Do not forget that we do have the potentially great center half Ignasi Miquel, or if things get too bad and Arsene does not wish to play Squillaci, Song can fill in at center back, pushing Kozzer to the right. Sure enough, when he played center back, Song did possess the willingness to tackle, the strength, and the fearlessness that trumps Koscielny's, so he'll be a great fit with our BFG.

Unusually for Arsenal, most of the transfer activity will be focused on strengthening out attacking line up. Losing Chamakh (is that really a loss?) and Gervinho (and his forehead) to the African Nations Cup in January, Arsene will be looking for replacements - however, it would indeed be a lie on my behalf to claim that this is the biggest motivator for buying a striker. But more on this later.

Over the recent weeks, I've found it rather astounding how many players Arsenal have been linked to for the January transfer window. Gotze, Podolski, Kalou, Granero, Gourcuff, M'Vila, Abdellaoue, Grosskreutz, Hazard, all encouraging signings, and I'm willing to bet one of these players will end up wearing the Red and White come the business end of the season. Because it's more than the January period and refreshment of legs on the line for the Gunners, but the fact that a January signing to bolster the squad that can really entice our in form Van Persie into extending his arguably last major contract for his footballing career. The presence of an advanced midfielder/winger in the form of Gotze/Hazard can really do wonders for our midfield and attack following the loss of Gervinho to the African Nations cup. It will also mean that our tricky little Russian Arshavin will stay benched (and I feel Arshavin only has such a role in our squad - as an impact sub). But if we can keep the big names at Arsenal, Robin will have more of an incentive to stay. It is certainly vital that we maintain a squad that is, at the minimum, able to obtain a Champions league place. There is of course the fact that we must consider that Van Persie's already made up his mind and wants to leave Arsenal, in which case, we will need a striker to replace him, perhaps in the form of Podolski, perhaps in the form of Kalou - in any case, it is obvious that Chamakh and Ju Young Park are not yet fit to fill the boots.
Wenger will have to buy a striker at the very least during this transfer window.

The coming of the transfer window also brings with it the return of Jack Wilshere, Ryo Miyaichi and Bacary Sagna, and given their presence in our team this season, they'll feel like new signings in themselves. While the return of the latter two speak for themselves, I'm finding it interesting to see how Wenger implements Wilshere back into the squad. Personally, I feel that as a technical midfielder who mainly provides the cohesion for our attacks to occur, our organized aesthetic simplicity, Arteta must remain fit and in the squad. With Alex Song demonstrating in weeks prior that he has an attacking edge up his sleeve (see his weave around three defenders against Borussia Dortmund and that KILLER assist to Van Persie's strike against the  Toffees), it must be Ramsey who sees the bench to accommodate for Wilshere. Unless his return coincides with the departure of Gervinho and Wenger plays a 4-4-2 diamond with Wilshere as a Trequartista behind main striker van Persie and wide forward Walcott (who can switch flanks). Thus allowing the midfield trio of Song, Arteta and Ramsey to continue flourishing, and allowing Jack to play where he plays best, in the "Cesc" role. Such a formation wouldn't allow much in the way of width, something that is only heightened by our lack of any fully fit center halves. But at the same time, such a formation allows for midfield domination, which is again heightened by the ability of players like Alex Song and Mikel Arteta to retain possession and play short, clean, simple passes. Very interesting prospects indeed.

But I escape my point, and it is a point that I cannot iterate more: when you have a player who has scored 34 goals in 33 games for the calendar year of 2011, you do what you can to keep him. If the man wants to have a threesome with John Terry and his mate's wife then so be it, you let him.

It's politics bitch.

Anyway, this weekend marks our league game against Manchester City, the toughest test the Arsenal team will face for a long time to come, but with a fully fledged squad, I'm anticipating an exciting match. More so, I'm anticipating wave after wave of "Samir you're a cunt - you're a cunt! Samir you're a cunt! Na na na na na na na na na!"

Long live the Empire of the Guns!

I'll update more on life in the next post.